1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for processing flat workpieces, for example cards or book documents, according to the preamble of the main claim.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such an apparatus is known from DE-PS 29 07 004 for example. The laminated workpieces are fed into the apparatus and personalized there with various data of the future user of the respective workpiece. In one personalization step, data are inscribed in a magnetic stripe of the workpiece for example. In another step, certain data are burned by a laser beam into specially provided data areas of the workpiece.
Further it is known that safety rules must be heeded for applying lasers in order to exclude possible injury to the operator. Furthermore, gases or dusts that can be unhealthy for the operator might arise when the data are burned into the workpiece by laser light.
In order to exclude possible danger to the operator, the workpiece is transported into a processing chamber for burning in the data. The processing chamber forms a closed space during processing of the workpiece that is intended to prevent direct or indirect emergence of laser light from the processing chamber, on the one hand, and the emergence of arising gases or dusts, on the other hand. If necessary the arising gases or dusts can additionally be sucked out of the processing chamber.
For processing, the workpieces are delivered by a delivery device directly into a workpiece holder located in the processing chamber. The delivery apparatus has frictional wheels that transport the workpieces through a gap in the processing chamber into the workpiece holder within the processing chamber. The gap corresponds essentially to the measurements of the card.
A disadvantage of the known apparatus is that there is a risk of leakage during delivery of the workpiece to the processing chamber so that laser light or gases or dusts might pass out of the processing chamber. Further there is the possibility of the workpiece delivered through the relatively narrow gap getting out of control and falling onto the bottom of the processing chamber for example.